<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" Content="text/html; charset=Windows-1252">

<TITLE>Introduction to WinRAR interface</TITLE>
<link href="style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
</HEAD>

<BODY>

<P class="title"><A NAME="HELPInterfaceIntro"></A>Introduction to
WinRAR interface<hr></P>

<P>This topic briefly describes main elements of WinRAR interface.</P>

<P>WinRAR includes following menus: <A HREF="HELPFileMenu.htm">File</A>,
<A HREF="HELPCommandsMenu.htm">Commands</A>, <A HREF="HELPToolsMenu.htm">
Tools</A>, <A HREF="HELPFavoritesMenu.htm">Favorites</A>, <A HREF="HELPOptionsMenu.htm">
Options</A> and <A HREF="HELPHelpMenu.htm">Help</A>. Select the appropriate
topic to read about commands of a particular menu.</P>

<P>The next interface item is the toolbar. It is placed below menus,
but above the file list. Toolbar buttons provide the quick access to items
of <A HREF="HELPCommandsMenu.htm">Commands</A> menu. If some archive
management functions are not applicable to archive opened in WinRAR,
corresponding toolbar buttons can be inaccessible. It is possible to choose
buttons to display, remove buttons text or reduce buttons size with
<A HREF="HELPInterfaceSettings.htm">Interface settings dialog</A>
or in the toolbar right click popup menu.</P>

<P>"Up" button and drop down address bar with disks and other important file
system locations are resided below the toolbar. "Up" button opens the parent
folder. Drop down list associated with the address bar can be activated with
mouse or F4 key. Press Ctrl+D or click the small "Disk" icon on the status bar
to access another more condensed disks menu. Unless "Lock toolbars" option
in "Interface settings" is on, toolbar, "Up" button and address bar
are draggable.</P>

<P>File list is located below the toolbar. It can show either the original
contents of the current folder or, if WinRAR is opened an archive, archived
files. These are so called <A HREF="HELPShellModes.htm">file management
and archive management modes</A>. Following file parameters are shown:
name, size, type and file time. Archived files also have two additional
parameters: packed size and checksum. Checksum is a value calculated for
file data and allowing to detect if archived file was damaged. WinRAR can
use either CRC32 or <a href="HELPGetArcOptions.htm#BLAKE2">BLAKE2</a>
algorithms to calculate checksums in RAR archives.</P>

<P>File list parameters are organized into columns. Click on the column title
changes the file sort order and repeated click on the same title changes
the sort direction, which is displayed with arrow in the title. Column widths
are adjustable by dragging column title separators with a mouse.
Several additional list options are available
in <a href="HELPFileListSettings.htm">File list</A> dialog.</P>

<P>If archived file is encrypted, its name is followed by the asterisk.
If file is continued in the next volume, its name is followed by "--&gt;".
If file is continued from the previous volume, its name is followed
by "&lt;--". And if file is continued both in next and from previous
volumes, its name is followed by "&lt;-&gt;".</P>

<P>Before processing files you need to select them in the list. Additionally
to standard Windows selection methods WinRAR provides several more keys
for this purpose: Space, Ins, "Numpad +", "Numpad -". More details are
provided in <a href="HELPInterfaceSelecting.htm">Selecting files</a> topic.</P>

<P>Following keys can be used to navigate in the file list. Backspace,
Ctrl+PgUp or double-click on the folder with ".." name open a parent disk
or archive folder. Same action in the root archive folder closes an archive.
Press Enter, Ctrl+PgDn or double-click on any other folder to open its
contents. Same action applied to an archive name opens this archive.
Ctrl+\ sets the root disk folder or folder containing an archive as
the current.</P>

<p>Ctrl+PgDn can be used to try opening a file with a non-archive extension
as archive. For example, if you wish to check if exe file is self-extracting
archive and do not want run this file, you can press Ctrl+PgDn on its name.
WinRAR will display the archive contents in case of SFX.</p>

<P>Right clicking the file list displays the menu with file management
and interface related commands. These commands are also accessible
through the main menu, toolbar and keyboard, so you can select whichever
activation method is convenient for you.</P>

<P>Left pane of WinRAR window can contain the folder tree panel if
it is enabled in "Folder tree" submenu of <A HREF="HELPOptionsMenu.htm">
Options</A> menu. Folder tree helps to navigate in disk or archive folders
quickly. Folder tree width is adjustable by dragging the right border with
the mouse.</P>

<P>Depending upon "Show archive comment" option in <A HREF="HELPInterfaceSettings.htm">
Interface settings dialog</A> and comment presence in the opened archive,
the right part of the file list can be overlapped by the archive comment
window. Comment window width can be adjusted dragging its left border
with the mouse.</P>

<P>Status bar is placed below the file list, at the bottom of
WinRAR window. Left part of the status bar contains two small icons:
"Drive" and "Key". Click on the "Drive" icon to change the current disk.
Click on the "Key" icon to set the current global password.
Both of these commands are also present in the <A HREF="HELPFileMenu.htm">
File menu</A>. By default the "Key" icon is grey, but if a global password
is entered, the icon becomes yellow. Middle part of the status bar
shows either the total size of selected files or information about
the current operation. The right part of the status bar displays
the number and size of files in the current folder.</P>

</BODY>
</HTML>
